How To Wind A Watch: Vintage Mechanical Watch Guide

How to wind a Watch: A lot of new watch owners wonder after buying an antique wristwatch with mechanical movement, as to which is the best way in winding a watch: is it supposed to be wound forward and backward or forward only?

They also ask whether there’s a correct measurement as to how much a watch should be wound.

In this article, we will tell you everything that you need to know about winding watches, including how often you should wind it.

Once you’re done reading the article, you’ll be able to tell when there’s a real resistance by the time you reach the wind’s end.​

Step 1: Put your watch flat on a table.

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For the first step, you need to remove your watch from your wrist or storage. This is important because if you do the winding while your watch is still pressed on your skin tightly, the winding motion will not be as effective.

Note: Winding a watch that’s attached to your wrist puts strain on the watch’s mechanics because of the stem and your arm’s angle.

Step 2: Locate the stem of the watch.

The stem is the small dial that can be found at the right or left side of your watch. This needs to be pulled out in order for you to wind your wristwatch.

Step 3: Hold the Watch Facing up with Your Left Hand.

If you’re left-handed, reverse the position. Your watch’s stem may have numerous settings such as settings for the time, alarm, time zone, or calendar.

​Settings are usually at little “clicks” when you pull or push the stem. It’s best if you do trial and error when identifying the winding position and feeling the clicks.

Step 4: Pull the stem of your watch.

Use your index finger and thumb to carefully pull the watch’s stem out. The one that you can pull or push is the top of the stem, which is also called as the “crown.”

It is perfectly normal if you find this bit tricky. Just take your time, so you won’t damage the mechanism.

Step 5: Wind the stem of the watch.

In winding the watch, do it clockwise. Only stop when you can already feel the resistance. Make sure you don’t keep on turning as soon as you’ve felt the resistance, and be conservative.

Otherwise, you’ll just damage your watch permanently

In time, you’ll develop a better sense on where the resistance is.

*Depending on your watch’s size, 25 to 45 forward turns will lead you to the resistance.

Last Step: Return your wristwatch to the normal state.

To do so, press the crown down. This should put the component of your watch back to where they were originally. Never force or shove parts when handling a watch’s stem and crown.

Now, a simple question will rise in your mind that how to know what is real resistance and when to stop winding? If so, it’s your lucky day because I have covered you with this by explaining:

How to tell if there’s a Real Resistance:

Are you having problems identifying the resistance of the last wind?

Perhaps you are concerned that you might overwind it.

What you should do is to wind your watch close to your ear. You need to hear your watch’s winding mechanism that’s clicking forward as you wind.

By the time you reach the end, you’ll hear that it’s finished. You’ll also notice that your thumb stops pushing forward.

There are instances where the thumb falls off the stem. This is perfectly normal and these are the indications to point resistance.

How Often a Watch should be wound

It’s important for you to wind your wristwatch once a week. Of course, this won’t guarantee that your watch will run for the entire week.

However, this will make sure the mechanism is healthy. A lot of people that have diamond and platinum watches don’t wear them every single day.

It’s most definitely fine. But, you have to wind them once a week for them to run in good condition.

Watch lovers wind on Sundays and Wednesdays. Not winding your watch will cause its oil to get clumpy and sticky.

If you wear your watch all the time, wait until it completely unwinds before winding it up again.

There are wristwatches that run for 18 to 36 hours.​

Take care of your watch, so it will last you a lifetime.

I hope I have covered everything smoothly. In case I forgot anything, feel free to ask in the comment section below, OR you can contact me directly for almost anything by using our c﻿﻿ontact ﻿﻿form.

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